Connect with us

Interviews

‘I Am The Only Lawyer That Removed Four PDP Governors In Nigeria’ -Chief Niyi Akintola

Published

2 years ago

on

-Remi Ajayi
 
 
Chief Niyi Akintola is not a greenhorn in Nigerian politics, he had seen it all while working with Chief Bola Ige and other Progressives to mould the future of Nigeria.  
 
He was a member of the House of Assembly at age 29 and he rose to the peak of his career when he became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and one of the best in the wig and gown profession.
 
The politician was a guest of Southwest Group of Online Practitioners (SWEGOP) in Ibadan recently and he fielded questions on the aftermath of the last elections, his commitment to the APC and his future plans…
 
 
 
Right After The APC Primaries In Oyo State, There was A Particular Write-up From You Where You Described The Immediate Past Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. What Went Through Your Mind When You Wrote That?
I said Uncle Biola Ajimobi was my brother, he was my brother in every sense of the word. We’ve come a long way and it was rather unfortunate that what happened really happened. Most of the people that claimed to know him today never knew where we were coming from. I remembered when I built a hospital for my community in 2006, Asiwaju Tinubu came down to lay the foundation of the proposed Teaching Hospital.  All the progressive governors were there that day, including those who were aspiring to be governors,  Adams Oshiomole, Chris Ngige, Fayemi, they were all present. Nobody has ever thought of having a cottage hospital anywhere in this country before then. Ajimobi was there that day too and he wasn’t a governor then.  Asiwaju that day said I should get ready to be the governor of Oyo State. I said I still have an elder and I pointed at Uncle Biola Ajimobi and said, these are my egbons, let them do first.
  I had the opportunity of stealing the show that day, but I didn’t. I took Ajimobi to Asiwaju Tinubu, this is what everybody knows. I took him there because they had fallen out and he was living in my house in Ikeja. I was on exile for 14 months, I was staying in the hotels and he was living in my house. When I had my own house in Omole all of them were coming there, including Chief Ladoja, Uncle Biola Ajimobi, Senator Amosun, Aregbesola, Fayemi…my place was the meeting point when we plotted against the PDP, and that was why it was easier for me to be the only lawyer that removed four PDP Governors in this country.
Ajimobi was actually staying in my house in Ikeja, in fact himself and Chief Ladoja were staying in my guest room. He was my brother and we knew each other far more than what I can tell you. Most of the people around him never knew him, they were just opportunists.
The write up was actually an interaction with a friend and compatriot from Ibadan who is a medical doctor. He put a call to me, I didn’t pick, so he messaged me on whatsapp to inform me about the loss of election by Ajimobi . I don’t dance on the grave of defeat of my adversaries, by my own assessment, I believe he would have been a better Senator, even he had his faults which I enumerated. it was Wole Arisekola that later called me from Dublin and said they’ve made 5000 copies of the write up to Ibadan indigenes in Dublin. That was it, I never knew it would go viral. The truth of the matter remains that I knew this man more than the people claiming to know him. They knew nothing about him, I knew him, we plotted many things together and like every human beings he had his faults and virtues, but he was the best. In terms of intellectual, he was articulate, he had class but unfortunately he lacked native intelligence. The write up wasn’t meant for public consumption, it was meant to be a chat between me and a friend who threw it out to the public. I’m not flippant, I choose my words.
After the primaries, you claimed you would quit partisan politics. But judging from recent activities, it seems you are coming back. Are you contesting again in 2023?
In the heat of the moment I felt betrayed and cheated and I knew what was going to be the implication for our party. Some of our compatriots don’t read and that has become the bane of our politics. If people read and look at the past… I saw myself in the same position  Chief Bola Ige found himself in 1998. Chief Bola Ige had been with the progressives since the 50’s . He anchored the Pan-Yoruba congress and we took a decision that the Yorubas should participate in the government. Bola Ige was in the thick of all these on behalf of the Yorubas. Suddenly some people just brought Chief Olu Falae and asked Chief Bola Ige to come and sit with Falae and he refused.  I’m an Ige boy and I’m proud to be. I was the one that asked him not to attend, it was outrageous. So my case was similar, and i looked at myself, with all the things I’ve done for these people , a lot of them were beneficiaries of my effort. I was the first in this country to remove a sitting governor and I was also the first to return an impeached governor. I had to go on exile because of these people and for somebody that joined our party in April to get the ticket in August, like Chief Bola Ige would say,  ‘do you expect me to start clapping?’.
 I don’t know why people don’t subject issues to perusal analysis again, no sense of value, no serious thinking, how did Yoruba degenerate to this level that we now tie everything to money? We have sense of value and concept called Omoluabi.
 I remembered in 1998 that Omisore financed the AD and we didn’t because of that throw the ticket at him.  See how he has been very useful to us the progressives of recent with what happened in Osun State. I was the one charged with the task of removing him as Deputy Governor. I went to Osogbo to remove him. How would you feel if you are in my shoes? I felt the way Chief Bola Ige felt. Just look at the conglomerate of the aspirants. We have a concept in Yorubaland called Omoluabi. One of the first lessons you learn in politics is to know your limitations.
 Some people, the only qualification they have is because they are from Ibadan. I didn’t just get up from the blues, I paid my dues, I went through the mills and that was why we are at this stage of quagmire because we have mixed it up. We’ve mixed the wheat with the chaff.
 Ordinarily the people our leaders would never sit with. Bola Ige would never sit with some people not to talk of them coming out to say they want to become Governor.
 I remembered in 1998, myself and Uncle Yemi Farounbi and Chief Tunde Adeniran, we were the foot soldiers of Uncle Bola Ige , we followed him to Abuja after the emergence of the aborted PDP . We actually wrote the constitutions of the PDP. Chief Bola Ige was the Chairman, I was an errand boy to him in that process and we produced the constitution, but when things could not work, we pulled out. We were to join another party called APP, but when we got there and saw Baba Adedibu and Governor Akala on the high table we walked out. But these days we sit with all sort of people, all sort of charlatans. People our leaders will not touch with a long pole. no more principles, no more value, everything is now about money. But there are some of us who still hold tenaciously to these principles.
So are you contesting again in 2023?
By the grace of God.
State of lawlessness in Nigeria and Oyo state has increased. What’s the cause and how can it be handled?
The issue of security is tied to social problems. If you subject the challenges facing this country to simple analysis, you’ll see that they are tied to our nonchalant attitude to the socio economic and political development in the country, the issue of crime is also tied to that.
 When we were growing up in the 70’s, we hardly find a Yoruba man begging on the street. In fact the Yorubas had this concept then, that when you are giving him free things they will start suspecting you. But they brought feudalism into our system.  Awolowo fought all his life against feudalism. he would tell you that its better to teach you how to fish than to give you fish. Have you ever read in the history where Chief Bola Ige was giving people rice, giving them garri? Our lives had degenerated to that level. They now call it stomach infrastructure which is another name for feudalism. The man who controls what you eat has taken all from you, and the moment that happens to you, it means the man has died in you, and when the man dies in you, you lose everything.
 As an 11 year old boy I couldn’t proceed to Secondary School, I had to go and do what they call ‘birisope’, there’s a house around Odo Ona there I was part of the people that lifted sand and stones to build it. I would trek from there everyday to my grandmother’s house at Foko, that’s what they call dignity of labour. But now you will see them standing in front of a rich man’s house to beg. We have over the years been creating social problems within the community.
We used to have ways and means of leadership recruitment, but it has been thrown away. Now what is used to measure that is money. I was barely 29 years old when I was a member of the House of Assembly, there were 52 of us. There were accountants, estate surveyors and other people with means of livelihood in our midst and that was why we were able to look straight into the eyes of the then Governor, that was how we did what we did and I ended up in the booth of a car.
 We stood up against tyranny, but today virtually all the Houses of Assembly are in the pockets of the Governors. If you don’t have a means of livelihood you would never be considered under Bola Ige. you must have been useful to the system over the years, you can’t just come from nowhere. Baba Akande was a chartered accountant before he became Secretary to the Government and later became a Governor. Today we have people we don’t know the source of their income all over the place. All of us are guilty of this.
You sometimes criticised Seyi Makinde, but recently you’ve been praising him. Why the sudden change?
I’ve not changed my position. I don’t belong to the class of disco critics, the disco critics never see anything good in their opponents. I’m a political scientist and a lawyer, a chartered arbitrator. I don’t belong to the disco critics who don’t see anything good in their opponents.
Seyi Makinde came on board and had no template. The template of the development of Oyo State was anchored by Governor Ladoja, give that credit to him. It is the template that Tinubu established in Lagos and others followed. When Makinde came and didn’t have a template I criticised that. When he decided to take up some projects, like reviving Ajoda… how many people have thought about that? Governor Jemibewon established Ajoda New Town, he established Agbowo Shopping Complex and the successive Governors did nothing about those infrastructures and Makinde touches that, I had to commend him. Idea rules the world, its not just for you to have degrees.
when Governor Makinde came on board and in a year didn’t have a plan and I had to comment. I told him we made our mistakes in APC and he capitalised on that, he used two weapons, Populism and Demarketing against us. He saw the fundamental mistakes we made due to lack of native intelligence and appraisal and he capitalised on that, but unfortunately for him, he has people like me to contend with. If he does well, I will praise him even to the detriment of our party, because our members would tell me not to praise him even if he was doing good, but I’m not a disco-critic and I can never be.
WHERE DO LEADERS MISS IT? THEY USUALLY HAVE LOFTY PLANS BEFORE THEY GET INTO OFFICE AND LOSE IT WHEN THEY GET THERE. HOPE THIS WONT HAPPEN TO YOU WHEN YOU ACHIEVE YOUR AIMS?
Morning will show the day, I was reading Tribune’s editorial comment  yesterday that said by their convoys you shall know them and I kept the copy. Those who ruled us before had money but they never flaunted or use it to oppress. By all standard Awolowo was never a poor man  and so also was Bola Ige and Jakande. But they never left their old houses, they lived there, even Lam Adesina. How many houses can you attribute to them? But those sense of value is gone, look at them. Only mad men use the same weapon and expect a different result. I was a Deputy Speaker in this state, I had an official car, a 504, my own personal car was a 505, the official car was given as a back up to my personal car. I was a Deputy Speaker and still go to court and  do my job. You cannot grow outside of your background.
If there’s any move in the future for you to step down again for another person in your party considered to also be competent, would you agree?
Why are you comparing apple with an orange? I’m a core progressive. Ours is anchored on legacies. Awolowo died in 1987 and we still celebrate him, so is Bola Ige. I’m an unrepentant Ige boy. Against that back drop I don’t see myself on the same level  with others.
Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Interviews

We Are Planning To Revolutionize Nigeria’s Real Estate Industry – Idowu Lamidi, CEO, Dollar Construction Company

Published

6 months ago

on

December 2, 2022

By

Idowu Lamidi

The CEO of fast-growing multinational construction company in Nigeria, Dollar Construction Company, Idowu Lamidi, recently  shared his view on how he ventured into construction business and why he decided to build quality estates in Ibadan among many salient issues… Excerpts

Can our readers meet you?

My name is Idowu Lamidi, I started my life in Ibadan, before going to the North. I bagged my HND in Land Administration and I am currently studying Business administration in Nasarawa State Polytechnic. In Dollar Construction Company, our lives have always been on business and we are in Ibadan not just to make money, or build estates but build homes for people. Once you people have a good home, crime will reduce. For someone living in a tattered house and you are threatening such person with prison, he will even tell you that there is no difference with where he is staying and that is why when people go to prison, they come out hardened, but someone that has comfort runs away from problem. That is why an adage in English says “the owner of a glass house will not throw stone” that is why we are here.

You said you grew up in Ibadan, you were born in Ibadan, but you are from Oyo town.  Why did you take your business first to Abuja before you came to Ibadan?

In the course of doing my Industrial Training in Abuja with a company, called ADCAN and it was from there that I started the company.

What brought about the name Dollar Construction Company?

In 2007, when I wanted to register the company, I and my wife trying to form name from our names but could not come up with one, then I told her that we should sleep over it When I woke up, I just tell her that the company will be called Dollar Construction Company. She said what kind of name is that and I told her that is a name that everybody would always remember.

Today, people know my company name more than they know my real name.  In some area in Abuja, if you say you are looking for Idowu Lamidi, people asked you, nobody bears that name here. But once you say Dollar Construction, everybody will know that because everybody need promo and they see that currency as an achievement even today if you take one dollar which is not up to a thousand dollar, even some adults if you give it to them and you give them one thousand naira, they will prefer to take one dollar. It’s about something catchy that anybody can remember, like if you are coming to any of our estate, I’m going to dollar estate, the only question they will ask now is which of the dollar is it the dollar phase one, two or three. We make it so easy to remember.

The situation of the third phase is formerly Oyo State Trade Fair Ground, how did you acquire this kind of massive land for your project?

The land used to be for Trade Fair ground, which is under Oyo State Ministry of Commerce and Industry and it acquired Wemabodtech to build neighborhood market.  When my company joined Wemabodtech, we told them this is a land locked area, and that it would only be good for building homes.

If you are planning a market, many things have to be put into consideration. Good road network must be one of the considerations and the situation must be between three or more communities. The proposed site, which is eleven hectares, is too big for a one-community market. If you look at where this land is situated, apart from Aerodrome Estate, every other thing here are like educational institution. To our left here, we have The Polytechnic Ibadan, to our right we have Aerodrome and Ventura Plaza, directly opposite us, and we have University of Ibadan. Surrounding us, there is no community as such; then who are you now building the market for? Secondly, the road to access the market is not there, you do not create local streets to access a market of this magnitude because it will cause a lot of traffic. You cannot tell people what to sell in their markets, people that will be bringing rice in trailers, people that will be bringing beans, tiles, lightening in trailers, and different kind of things. That is why you see today, iwo road is always jam-packed, it is not because of too many cars, but because of too many tucks accessing the place at a time. Look at Gbagi Central Market also, because of those trucks also coming to drop goods, they are not cars that you can just quickly reverse and move on. Before a trailer can turn, it will take nothing less than 15-20 minutes and you have like 10-15 queues to turn, you are going to have issues. We now advice that we cannot use it for market, it has to be used for residential, because one, this area again at night, it’s always like a ghost town, the schools close by six, four, three, everybody goes home, there will not be any activities. However, making it a home, by 6 o’clock, people start coming back home, it gives life to the place because when you have a home, you will have transportation system that runs 24hours around that place. It gives the police also comfort that are there that there are people who will call the police when things go wrong or if there is any crime trying to take place. If it is a market, once it is 6  o’clock, the market will short down totally that is why we now applied for change of use to the executive governor of oyo state through the ministry of land and the governor gave us the change of use and that is why we are now doing residential and not marketing.

Talking about the phases that you have, phase one, two or three, is it a strategic kind of progress for you to keep having different phases, even if the phase one is still not yet developed. What exactly are you trying to achieve by that?

To make estate ready is not all about the building alone. We may have the building and I do not have money to buy furniture because if you are moving to a new house, my mindset maybe different from yours. In Dollar Phase one, most of the houses there is completed but the owners have not moved in maybe because, some want to move in with a new car or I cannot move in with my old furniture but once you have made the road available, security, light and water, the estate is ready for you to move in. That is what we have been able to achieve in our phase one, and in our phase two, people have already moved in. If I did not move in to my house does not mean that the estate is not ready. The estate is ready but how I may look at it with this kind of hose that I might have, I need a Bentley Car to accompany the house, I need to move in at my wedding ceremony, I need to move in with this, these furnitures are too old, it now depends on you. Some people will even move in and even say it is even breakthrough for me to have finish this house. Moreover, it is not about moving phase one to phase two, I can assure you that we are going to have up to phase 5. Now, the prices of these estates are different, if you cannot afford to buy in phase one, you can go for the phase two because our phase two is cheaper, phase 3 is more expensive than phase two and phase 1. Your taste in the environment you want to live in, I keep telling people, our estate, we are going to provide same quality of infrastructure; it may not be same quality of house. In our phase 2, we allow bungalows, but in our phase one and three, nothing like bungalows. These are houses of contemporary, if you ask an architect; they will tell you contemporary houses are what we are building and not what we are used to.  The phase 2 is a bit cheaper so that Civil Servants and the middle class can also afford it. Those are the reason we keep opening different phases to accommodate as much people as available that need houses.

We have seen some of your achievement in previous projects like phase one and phase two, and this one, one will be pushed to ask that how do you plan to finance this project considering the current unfavorable economic situation in the country. What is your plan for this project?

Well, financing of housing project, they say it takes community to raise a child. That is our strength and that is why you see that we do not have good car, because our priority is to deliver these estates. Our plan is to have a good road, neighborhood, a place you can raise your child, like in this estate now we always have an open space where we call green area. We also have a recreation Club house, I don’t mean night club. Like on Saturday and Sunday, you are not going out, you just stroll with to the club house with some games for the children, where adult can take cool drinks and listen to countryside music those are the things we are doing in all of our estates. All these are planned, these are not after thoughts. I always tell people that we have limited estate in Ibadan. What we have in Ibadan mostly are GRA because the property owners came together and put gate doesn’t make it an estate. This is comprehensive development, we have a clinic here, and we have everything here.

So what you are saying in essence is that what differentiates these estates is not the infrastructure bodies but there are buildings and structures.

You started in Abuja, what attracted you to Ibadan?

Yeah, our plan is to conquer the southwest because if you are doing well outside your home, it does not talk good about you. First, how many people can afford to buy our kind of houses in Ibadan? We look at that first, how many people can afford to buy same houses in Abuja? A businessperson will use that to plan. We are planning to conquer the south west to provide housing, but it may not be possible for us to build building in Oyo or in Oshogbo, Ede or in towns and villages across southwest, but it is possible to provide site and services in those area so that people now build their strength.

Dollar Construction is it only for Estates. What other things do you do there?

We are among the category B in Federal Government contractor list. We have category A which are the Dantata, Berger, Chinese, CCECC, and others. We are doing government contracts very well, year in, year out that is why you see that it is very easy for us to provide infrastructure in our estates. The only equipment we have in road construction is the spreader because it is not what we use often but we have all other equipment and it is so easy for us to build roads in our estates.

There are lot of estate/construction companies in Ibadan and some will say, buy one take one free, what stands dollar construction over all these construction companies?

Housing is something that everybody prefers. In my lifetime, I plan to have as many as possible houses because it’s one way of transferring wealth to generation yet unborn. Those people saying, buy one land and take one arm free they have their targeted audience and in which it is working for them because somebody that bought land which is 600 thousand and you give him ram that is worth 350 thousand, I think the person has his mindset tied somewhere. We are targeting our own audience. They are targeting their own audiences, that is the reason you see most of those estates will not see the light of the day because it takes a lot to build an estate, not Baale that will just sell land and call it one estate, which is still good because they are also providing services to people. If you that can buy land of N100million, I do not think ram will be your priority. However, it is nothing out of place to appreciating our clients by getting those gifts during festive periods but your primary reason of buying property with us is not for ram.

Having successfully exhibited the previous estates the phase 1, what is your mega plan for year 2023?

What develops cities mostly, not just the housing. When we have good houses and nobody to live in it, it does not make sense or so. Our mega plan for 2023 is that we want to make industrial layout. Oyo-Ibadan road at least we should have so many industrial lay out there, Lagos-Ibadan, we should have a lot of industrial lay out so that we can have industries coming in and that will make our houses affordable, because if I’m working in a good place and the company can provide affordable housing, my problem is half solved. Our houses are very affordable with the kind of amenities that come with it. There are houses for N3billion, N5billion, in Lagos, Abuja, I have build house that I have sold for N3.5billion before, N1.4billion before and almost N2billion before. If we are having same kind of structure that is much lesser here, I do not think it is not affordable. We are into site and services, which means that you have gotten your land, and we’ve made the infrastructure, street light, water system, perimeter fencing and you sell to people in plot maybe 500, 600 and individuals build what they feel like, that is what is called site and servicing.

One of the challenges faced in real estate not only in Oyo State but in every other place is scandal…how have you been able to be scandal-free? And, how have you been able to be free from the ‘omo onile’ factor?

Experience has taught us a lot of lesson, even people buy property from us knows that we have a milestone payment plan. If the person dies in the process, in all our form, we have the next of kin to the person on it. We will contact the next of kin of such person. It doesn’t allow us have issues, and when the issues are cleared, everyone hands off. For us now, all our offices are always at the site, you come to us at the site, and you meet us at there so that you can easily know quickly if anything is happening. For every site we have sold, we also report it to EFCC. Every month we report our transaction back to EFCC to know who own the site or house. Our workers know so it will be difficult for you to say that person is no longer the owner of the house because there will be too many testimony against you. When we are selling house to you, we give you speculation and it is not that you will just buy the land and you will now run to Abuja and say maybe after 20years you will come and resell it, we will revoke it. We have not had issues of selling land to one person and we say this land does not belong to one person again, we can revoke If we sell land to you and we give you payment plans and you default 3 times. We will revoke and it shows that you do not have capacity for that kind of project and there will not be any need to embark on it.

How do you stay focused with what you are doing?

I started real estate at a very tender age, when I was just 24 years old. I have worked with some big companies in the real estate sector before I started my company. I believe that the greatest enjoyment is for someone to sleep and this is what I do, and if I see one bottle of cold drink, I can take if the opportunity provides itself.

Continue Reading

Interviews

‘Buhari Has Failed Woefully And APC Had Lost Its Goodwill’ -Oyo Former Attorney-General, Bayo Ojo

Published

2 years ago

on

October 1, 2021

By

Chief Mutalubi Adebayo Ojo read Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, he later proceeded to the University of Ibadan to study Law. He equally served as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice under late Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State. Last Tuesday, he appeared on Ayekooto On Radio, a magazine programme anchored by Olayinka Agboola live on Lagelu 96.7fm, Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State
 On one of your Social Media profile pages, you wrote that laws must be used as tools of social engineering, for economic development and poverty eradication. Why did you think along this line?
Lawyers are called legal luminaries all over the world especially in a democracy to lighten paths and ways of their fellow citizens so that they can see through and will not fall or slip from their ways. Law is an object to develop the country and engineer development and tackle poverty.
 Today, as we are speaking, do you consider yourself to be a full fledge politician?
I must not pretend about that. I am a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).  I formally joined the party very recently during the revalidation exercise. When I was in government under our late leader, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, I was not a card-carrying member of the party.
 What was it like when you were the Chief Lawmaker in Oyo State?
It was all about service to humanity, contributing your quotas to your community, state and society at large. All of us cannot be satisfied to remain in our comfort zones because if it is something we are going to eat together with our family and how to educate our children, we do not have such problems. Let us think of others who are less privileged and who do not have the same opportunity like us.  In life there are basic amenities of life such as food, shelter and education and health. Let us strive to make life more meaningful to people, I believe that any aspiration to be in government and public service should be geared towards service. As a commissioner, I served to the best of my ability.
 States are at war with  Government on the issue of the Value Added Tax collection (VAT). What is your opinion?
I have a very different view and I have expressed it at different fora before. Value Added Tax (VAT) is not listed specifically in the exclusive list. We have already had in place a VAT act – since the era of the military. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has been collecting it from individuals, company without any level of protest from any level of government. It will be wrong for any state now to enact another VAT law like Lagos and Rivers have done. We already have a federal act which has covered the field and that will be inconsistent with any law that is happening now.
During the second republic, we had a similar case between Attorney General of Ogun State and Aberuaba which was litigated up to the Supreme court that it was stated that Ogun State could not enact sales tax.
Also, during Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of Lagos State, there was this law that was enacted by Lagos state government on hospitality and consumption tax. It happened that Eko Hotel took the state government to court that they could not be paying the same tax when they were already paying same to the federal government and they won the case.
 Now, as a lawyer and politician, you know the way things are in Nigeria today – insecurity and economic woes, where did we get it wrong?
Leadership is the major problem facing Nigeria. Our current president, Muhammadu Buhari has failed and has disappointed many people. He has failed woefully and the party, APC has lost its goodwill that brought it to power in 2015.
 But some observers said Jugdes/Lawyers, Policemen and Journalists are mainly responsible for the situation Nigeria has found itself…
I do not agree with that assumptions that Lawyers, Judges, Police and Journalist are responsible for Nigeria’s problems today. We have all failed. We cannot have a better country if we do not have a good family unit. A good community cannot exist if there is a bad local government and state. We have lost it all and all sectors are affected.  We are the problems and if people in the country agree to change and do the right things then Nigeria will be better.
 What do you think is the difference between APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?
There is no difference between the two parties. Our political parties are not ideology-based. They are just platformS through which one can get elected to serve. There is nothing like progressives’ party in my understanding. Both parties are bereft of ideologies.
 So, what is the way forward ?
We cannot keep complaining that because politics is a dirty game. It is dirty because majority of the people participating in it presently are dirty. We must not leave it to charlatans, we must all participate in it to improve the system.
 What is your take on the ongoing agitation for Yoruba nation?
Looking at the rate at which we are going in this country, unless Nigeria is restructured, we may disintegrate. Things are not at ease and we have never been divided like this before. The Hausas are seeing themselves as different from the Fulanis. There is nothing like one north again, even the Hausas and the Fulanis are even more divided than the south. We need to sit down and find solutions to the myriad of problems we are facing. Independence of Yoruba Nation is just one of the valid options to be used to solve Nigeria’s problems.
Continue Reading

Interviews

Before Covid-19, Nigeria’s Media Already Had Covid-18 -Edward Dickson, MD, Nigerian Tribune

Published

2 years ago

on

August 11, 2021

By

-Ayotunde Ayanda
Mr Edward Dickson, the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief at African Newspapers Nigeria Plc, the publishers of the Tribune Titles has said that the country’s traditional media houses already had ‘COVID-18’ before the advent of COVID-19.
According to the newspaperman, the media houses were already being treated at what he called ‘the proverbial intensive care unit’ adding that it was increasingly onerous and difficult to stay afloat in the business’s murky waters.
Speaking further about survival strategies for the newspaper industry in Nigeria, Dickson said “specifically, it has been hectic running the Tribune titles. Running publishing outfits like this has been onerous. As a business, it is one that has been so difficult to understand. One can never be able to understand it. I will tell you that every copy of our publications out there is being sold at a loss. Go to any newspaper house in Nigeria and find out.
“And, you see, it has been those of us that God put in charge that are doing our very best to ensure that we keep publishing even if we have to burn fingers. The newspaper industry must survive. It must not crash because if it does, then, our society will be in deep trouble.”
Reason for this, according to the University of Ibadan’s master’s degree holder in Managerial Psychology, is because “the typical newspaper house has a constitutional role to play as the watchdog and the conscience of the society.
“So, an average media manager sees it as his or her cardinal responsibility to ensure that the newspaper under his care does not die”.
Edward Dickson made these submissions while featuring on a weekly radio show, ‘Ayekooto on Radio’ anchored by Olayinka Agboola and broadcast live on Lagelu 96.7 FM, Felele, Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State’s on Tuesday evening.
While speaking about his most embarrassing moment as a journalist, Dickson said “There was this day in 1994 during the struggle for the actualization of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election believed to have been won by Basorun MKO Abiola- that day, I was in a combi bus going to work at the Punch Newspapers. I was seated at the back and it was time for the noon news on radio and it was announced  just shortly before we got to Onipetesi Bus Stop in Ikeja that the Punch Newspaper had been shut down by the then military administration.
“The reaction of my fellow passengers in the bus shocked me. They said Punch’s wahala was too much. Some asked if Punch was the only newspaper in Nigeria adding that it was good that the government shut it down. I was so shocked. And these were the people the newspaper was trying to represent by fighting for their collective rights. I was embarrassed more because at that time, I was the newspaper’s correspondent that was covering MKO Abiola’s house and activities surrounding him.”
The Tribune Editor also proudly confirm that he feels quite fulfilled as a professional journalist.
He said “I have always wanted to be a journalist or a lawyer all my life. Added to this is the fact that I was also resolute that I would work at the Nigerian Tribune Newspaper. I have enjoyed every moment of my life as a journalist”.
When asked to define who a professional journalist is, he responded “a professional journalist is somebody that has gone through prescribed courses in Journalism at the university or polytechnic or the institute of journalism. This experience makes a difference between him or her and somebody who merely knows how to string one or two sentences together in English or whatever language.”
Dickson added that the dichotomy between the traditional journalists and bloggers as well as those who operate on the social media will soon disappear.
“This is because we are at the infancy stage of this development. If you take a cursory look at the names of the people behind the numerous online publishing outfits, you will find out that they are mostly our colleagues who worked with the traditional media outfits who have moved on to establish their own newspaper platforms online. All our traditional newspapers also have online platforms.
While speaking about ‘fake news’, he said “Only those who seek fake news get fed with fake news. I belong to a generation of ‘old school’ journalists. Yes, I feel bad when I see folks publishing fake news. But then, if you see or read fake news, you will know. Most fake news stand only on one leg. It is a taboo to publish fake news or one-legged story at the Tribune House. The reaction of the other side must also be published. If you are interested in authentic news, you know where to go, even, online.”
On the issue of regulation, Dickson submitted “the media in Nigeria remains one of the most regulated.”
When asked about how he reacted when he heard about the demise of David Ajiboye, one of his former staff members who went on to become a management staff at Yinka Ayefele’s Fresh FM Radio, the top journalist said “the news of David’s death got to me as a shock. I met him in 1998 when he came in to serve as an intern at the Nigerian Tribune Newspaper. He was able to make a name for himself and before long, he became more known as an entertainment reporter and he went on to work with Dr Yinka Ayefele as his publicist. He later rose to become a manager of one of Fresh FM’s branches in Ado Ekiti. His death is a huge loss to the profession.”
Continue Reading

Trending